Caramel & Health

Savour the taste in a healthy way

The word "caramel" is not limited to confectionery but refers to various products depending on recipes and applications (food, ingredients for flavouring, additives for colouring). Caramel is widely used in the food industry. Over time the question of a link between caramel and consumer health has been raised.

Caramel has not delivered all of its secrets yet. That's why, as part of our fundamental research policy, we promote theses, publications and partnerships with universities and public research organizations such as INRA, CERNAV and NUTRAVITA. These partnerships enable to use the research organizations skills to improve the knowledge of caramel molecules and caramelization reactions, in particular odorous molecules.

Investments in high-level analytical equipment (HPLC/GC-MS/MS-tandem) allowed us to develop our own analysis methods (published in scientific journals with international review) for the identification and quantification of specific molecules, such as 4-MEI.

Our monographs present an overview of the current knowledge about caramel, and especially aromatic caramels and caramel colours.